July 12, 2022

First deep ice cores drilled!

The first cores of 2022 stored in the ice-core buffer after being logged, waiting to be processed in the science trench.


Hurray, today at 1.30 pm the first 2 m of ice core came to surface. A pull of some 1900 kg was needed to break the core in the borehole. That is a hard break, but not critical with the new winch setup. Later during the day, a 1.4 m core came up. The new cores have been paired up with the left-over core piece from 2019, logged and stored in the ice core buffer. For this post-Corona season it has taken more than two months to get to the point where deep drilling could be initiated, as compared to a ‘normal’ year, where it is a matter of weeks.
Ole and Michael went out to install the last ApRES station that will overwinter in the field. Aslak, Henrik and Jeppe went out to measure a number of GPS positions downstream the ice stream. Finally, Daniel, David, Tamara and Niels went out with the Mills Cross radar to measure more large-scale ice folds SE of camp. With the deep drilling initiated, the day marks an important milestone for the project, and even the weather ended up supportive with blue sky and great outdoor conditions after noon.

What we did today:

  1. Drilled first ice cores. Logger’s depth: 2126.03 m. Last bag: 3865. Logged core: 3.30 m.
  2. Finished DEP measurement of the German shallow core ExS5_1.
  3. The Mills Cross radar measured ice sheet folds SE of camp.
  4. GPS stations were measured 25 km downstream NE of camp.
  5. ApRES 7 and PpRES 30 and 10 stations were monitored and installed.
  6. Continued packing down drone camp.
  7. Logged temperature in 100 m shallow hole.
  8. Grooming apron and skiway to prepare for flights next week.

Weather today: The day started out like yesterday with solid overcast, but it did clear up over noon and became nice and sunny. Temp. -11.3°C to -7.7°C. Wind: 0-10 kt from SW turning W.

FL, Anders Svensson

All drillers in front of the first drilled ice core of the season: Søren, Romain, Grant, Nicholas, James, Claus and Julien.

Dorthe and Daniela in the logging cabin with the first ice core.

The perfect fit of the last core drilled in 2019 and the first core drilled in 2022. The topmost part of the 2022 core (in the center of the picture) was actually left behind in the borehole in 2019 as the last core drilled that year did not break at the bottom of the borehole.